Tabs

February 20, 2019

Today’s the day I finally get to share with you what started
well over a year ago!

That’s right! Over a year ago!

Back in January 2018, I connected with local Montreal surface
pattern designer Camilla Carvalho, from Oak Print Design, and
she gave me access to her pattern library to pick some prints that I would like
to work with.

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What fun to scour through her design
repertoire (see more of her amazing designs here) and choose my faves.

Narrowing down the selection was tough, as I love Camilla’s designs
and bold use of colours and shapes inspired by nature.

But pick one, I did and her Valentine’s collection hits all
of those design notes I love – bold,

colourful, graphic, with a touch of
whimsy.

Camilla ordered up the prints from her Spoonflower shop and we
decided to meet in person for the first time at Melk, a local coffee shop.

I had a great time chatting with Camilla! Even though it was
our first-time meeting, I felt completely at ease connecting with her.

With fabrics on hand, I went home to order some coordinating
solids.

This is always such a fun moment in the quilting journey –
when you have the design idea drafted out, some fabrics on hand, while waiting
for others to arrive – it’s the build up of the excitement of seeing all these elements
come together. I thoroughly enjoy it and try and remember to savour these
moments rather than try and rush through them.

While waiting for my solids, I decided to pitch the idea to
Love Patchwork and Quilting Magazine and…she got accepted! This all happened a
few weeks after I had pitched my first pattern to a magazine, which just happened
to be the Double Windmill quilt featured in LPQ issue 67. I hadn’t even started working on that one and I already had a second quilt
successfully pitched! Good and scary times all at the same time!

Once the solids arrived it was time to play!

Now, there’s always a moment of trepidation, especially when
I’m cutting into fabrics from a designer I know, where I think “I hope this
works” – ha! You can plot your designs out on the computer or by hand all you
want, but until you actually start cutting and piecing, you really don’t know
how it’s going to look or how you’re going to feel seeing it all come together.

With this one, my moment of trepidation was fleeting! I was
overjoyed to see these fun drunkard’s path blocks come together. The prints are
just so fun. The colours are beautifully saturated and full of life. And paired
with the curves just makes it all sing. Do you get those feelings from your quilts too?

To keep the focus on the prints and the quilt design, I
opted to quilt her using 1” straight line quilting in a very soft pink 40wt Aurifil Thread. I’ve used this pink a few
times already – most recently in my Flight Plan quilt.
The colour is quite versatile, but still gives a little added dimension to a
quilt without overpowering.